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“A judge over in Camden County. You remember reading about Daniel Clayton from back in the day?”
“The Federal prosecutor who blew his brains out in the middle of the Connelly case?” Or so the story went. I had a gut feeling there was more to it given some particulars I learned about later, but that was neither here nor there.
Jerome nodded pointedly at the letter. “That’s his widow. Looks like she’s finally getting revenge for what happened.”
I stared at him like he had three heads. “By coming after a lawyer who hadnothingto do with it? Yeah. Makes sense.”
“You represent Connelly Construction.”
“Along with twenty other lawyers in the greater Chicagoland area who are into way shadier shit than I am. Not to mention the fact I wasfourteenwhen this dude was whacked and not even in the damn country!”
Jerome cocked his head. “Whacked?”
“Died. Whatever. Semantics.”
“Then why would she go after you like this?”
Shaking my head, I folded the letter again and stuffed it back in the envelope, holding it out to him. “This isn’t her. It’s her daughter.”
He covered my hand with his, forcing it back down to the table. Patting it gently, he retracted his own with a quiet chuckle, leaving the letter in my possession. “Why would her daughter be after you, then?”
“The client I was ‘inappropriate’ with?” I lifted my left hand and pointed at the wedding ring. “She was fucking him too.”
“Aw, shit, man.” He ran a hand over the back of his head and let out a slow breath.
“It might be her mother’s name, but this has that blonde bitch all over it.”
“Wow… And I thought I had some crazy exes.” He laughed and shook his head.
“Well, she is a psychiatrist, so you know she’s just as fucked up as her patients. I mean... clearly.”
“Yeah, but you married your client, man.”
“Yep.” The ‘p’ popped on the end as I slunk back in my seat. “True love and all that.”
“Damn. And it’s a guy? For real?”
“As far as I know, he is. If he’s not, he had one hell of a surgeon.”
He shook his head, leaning back in his seat as well. “Look, I can make this one disappear. Ok? No problem. You know how many letters we get every week? But if she sends another one and another Commission lawyer gets it? Better get your ducks in a row.”
“It won’t come up again.”
“You stole this girl’s man! She lost her guy toanotherguy. You think it’s over?”
“First of all, he was mine first,” I snapped. “She was a means to a fucking end. And second of all, you can’t force the willing. No one held a gun to his head and made him marry me. Ok?”
“You know the Puritans at work don’t see it like that.”
“There is no imbalance of power in this relationship. He has just as much money as I do and he’s the fucking CEO. It’s not like he’s a goddamn secretary I manipulated into draining the company bank account. So everyone at the ARDC can shove their morality up their ass.” I glanced back at him. “Except you. You actually have some common sense.”
“All I’m saying is, you better come up with some good precedents as a backup plan.” He drummed his fingers on the table, stopping suddenly to look up at me. “When did you know you were gay?”
I leveled a flat look at him. “I’m not gay.”
He squinted at me. “Are yousureyou’re not gay?”
“I literally just said…” Bing! Lightbulb. “I am as gay as the day is long. Flaming. Absolutely. All my life.”
